NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 18 percent of female students at one U.S. University reported incidents of rape or attempted rape during their first year at the institution, according to a new study.
Sexual violence on U.S. campuses has reached "epidemic levels," the study's authors said, and interventions to reduce it were urgently needed.
The survey, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, was based on questionnaires of 483 participants and counted students' self-reported incidents of both rape and attempted rape.
Researchers polled young women at an unnamed college in upstate New York, identified in the study only as a "large private university", four times over a year.
Over the first two semesters, more than 15 percent of the respondents disclosed a rape or attempted rape, the study found.
"If you swap in any other physically harmful and psychologically harmful event, a prevalence of 15 percent would be just unacceptably high," Kate Carey, professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University School of Public Health and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
"If, for instance, 15 percent of our young people were breaking their legs in their first year of school, we would expect that the community would do something to enhance the safety of the environment."
The study said that estimates that distinguish between incidents of "forcible rape" and rape that occurred when alcohol or other drugs are used suggested that so-called "incapacitated rape" is more prevalent than forcible.
During the first year of college, "people are usually moving away from home for the first time, they are experimenting with a lot of freedoms including the use of alcohol and other drugs and learning how to live by themselves," said Carey.
Researchers also looked back at past experiences of polled students and found that 37 percent of the women said they had experienced at least one rape or attempted rape between the age of 14 and the start of sophomore year, their second year of college.
The scale of the problem of on-campus sexual violence nationwide has proved hard to assess.
Researchers are struggling to gather complete and reliable data due to a number of factors such as victims' reluctance to report incidents and a varying perception of what constitutes sexual assault.
In 2014, a widely-cited report that one in five female students have been raped was both validated and challenged by two dueling surveys that used very different methodology, the Washington Post reported.
The problem at American University is one that colleges across the nation are confronting -- how to stem the rising tide of campus sexual assaults.
The issue again made headlines earlier this month when Rolling Stone magazine detailed graphic allegations of assault and gang rape at fraternity parties -- and the administration's troubling lack of action -- at the prestigious University of Virginia.
After the article was published, the school announced it was suspending fraternity and sorority activity -- so-called "Greek life" -- until January, when the new semester begins, and would hold meetings with students, faculty, alumni and others concerned to discuss steps to prevent sexual violence on campus.
Amanda Gould, who is in her second year of studies, created a group -- "No more silence" -- and gathered 1,700 signatures to urge the university to expel the authors of the emails.
"Everyone considers them as 'rape fraternities,'" said Gould.
"But the university consistently said we can't do anything, because they are not affiliated with us," she noted, referring to Epsilon Iota's unofficial status.
Gould nevertheless organized a demonstration on campus that she called a "turning point", explaining: "The university can't just sweep it under the rug anymore."
She never managed to get a meeting with the university president, but she indirectly got support at a much higher level.
Washington (AFP) - Last spring, emails written by members of American University's Epsilon Iota fraternity were leaked, revealing to a horrified public the strategies -- from manipulation to outright drugging -- the brothers used to get sex.
The messages from the members of the unofficial group at the campus in the US capital gave tips on targeting first-year female students -- perceived to be more naive -- and the best places to have sex without being seen.
One email suggested inviting girls over for drinks before a party, so they "would feel more relaxed and safe."
That "would be such a good idea to get the bitches in the right state of intoxication," it said.
'It's on us'
As outrage over the prevalence of sexual assaults on college campuses -- and what many critics blast as an inadequate response from authorities -- spread, the White House launched a national campaign.
"It's on Us" -- promoted by President Barack Obama -- calls on each student to "be part of the solution."
"Don't be a bystander. Stopping sexual assault is about being the guy who stops it," the campaign urges in videos using footage shot at parties, showing drunken women targeted by unscrupulous students.
Across the United States, an estimated one college student in five is raped, and only 12 percent of these attacks are reported, Obama said when he launched the campaign in September.
For other students, workshop attendance is voluntary -- despite troubling statistics from a 2013 poll showing that 18 percent of American University students had been subjected to undesired sexual relations within the previous six months.
'Yes means yes'
The hour-long presentation -- with free pizza as an extra enticement -- focuses on what constitutes true consent in a sexual encounter.
In a slightly stilted atmosphere and using a prepared script, two presenters explain that both parties need to be sober and must consciously agree to any sexual act.
"Consent is sexy. It is awesome to desire and to be desired," emphasizes one of the presenters.
Very little is said, however, on ways to stay out of danger -- for instance, about drinking, or accepting either a drink in an open cup or a ride from a stranger.
"Risk reduction is one very small, even not essential piece to sexual prevention," said Daniel Rappaport, the university official tasked with preventing sexual violence.
The program takes inspiration from "Yes Means Yes," a law just passed in California. Under the new law, any sexual encounter without clear agreement could be considered rape if a complaint is filed with the university.
In other words, at issue in investigations would not be whether there was a rape, but whether there was consent -- with public funding for institutions tied to compliance.
But AU's Rappaport says the problem goes deeper than laws.
"The core problem is the way we train boys to become men who are taught to be aggressive and dominate and to see women as objects of conquest," Rappaport said.
Perpetrators don't stand out as easily identifiable monsters, he said.
"They have the same social skills, same class schedules, same whatever as everyone else," Rappaport explained.
"But they have been taught and reinforced by our culture over and over again that doing what they do is acceptable."
© AFP Saul LoebAmanda Gould (C), an American University student on a Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Task Force dealing with campus sexual assaults and violence, speaks with fellow students during a school forum, November 10, 2014
2015 Campus Climate Surveys
The 2015 Association of American Universities (AAU) Campus Survey on Sexual Assault, one of the largest studies ever of college sexual violence, drew responses from 150,000 students at 27 schools, including most of the Ivy League. It found that more than 20 percent of female and 5 percent of male undergraduates said that they were victims of sexual assault and misconduct.
The researchers acknowledged that these estimates may have been too high, because there were indications those students who chose not to participate in the survey were less likely to have experienced sexual assault than non-respondents. The AAU’s findings are roughly consistent with a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation national poll, published in June 2015 that found that 1 in 5 young women who attended a residential college during a four-year span said they were sexually assaulted.
KC Johnson, a Brooklyn College history professor who tracks college sexual assault issues noted that if the survey were taken literally, the rates "suggest a violent crime rate at most campuses higher than in any city in the country."
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Regard for All, Love for All.
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